Saturday, September 17, 2016

Footing-o-Rama

The building is now up, with the exception of the main front sliding doors. We have been told by the builder that the doors were made in the wrong size and now they need to be remade and won't arrive until sometime mid October. Darn it! But that doesn't stop us from getting the arena footing in. And despite this being another setback and delay, I think the Lord works in mysterious ways. In this case those special doors are not here so we can get the footing placed using all the large machinery and they won't get scratched or worse in the process. The front sliding doors are our big, big splurge on this project. At 14' tall and 14' wide, they are custom made and will have divided light panels on top and cross bucks on the bottom. They will be the cherry on top of the entire project - well, more like the front center cherry, not really the top. Lol. I can't wait to have them hung and in place....but first the footing.

The arena is standing. Gable end set of sliding doors on.

The first step for the footing was a day long excercise in packing sand and soil under the knee saver sections. This took hours. It had to be done so that the footing doesn't slide under the void under the kick walks later, but neatly fills the arena and stays put. Scott dumped ground all along the wall and I got the pleasure of hand pushing it under the wall. We both agreed that if we had thought this through beforehand, we could have pre-set the soil before the builders put up the kick wall. But hindsight is 20/20 and as a result I am on my knees pushing soil to fill the circumference opening of 360' X 6"X 18". Arghhh. My badge of honor comes in the form of bruises on my legs, and cuts and scratches up my forearms. Not to mention sweat and yes, tears!! Oh, and exhaustion. But the project was concluded before sunset that day. Whew. I hope to never do that again!

Scott spreads TB as our base for the footing.

Next was the base. Scott has been taking to the skidster on a nightly basis all week. A load of TB has been delivered each day. After work he goes out to spread the material and fill the arena, section by section. I'm so proud of him. He has become quite proficient with the skidster, and little by little the arena base is getting set. He needs to work while we still have sunlight since the electric isn't hooked up yet.

Speaking of electric, one night during the week the electrician team came to pull electric from the barn over to the arena. And because nothing on this project can be easy, we needed to run new electric lines from the house to the barn in order to have enough electric to light both buildings. The crew gets to work but in the midst of the project comes a knock on our door. They can't pull the old lines out or lace the new cable in because something must be pinched off in the tubes that run from the house to the barn. The solution is to retrench the hundreds of feet and possibly break out the cement around the barn! Omg! Scott is truly going to have that gripper he keeps threatening this project is going give him. The electricians go back in the basement and then back out to the barn. They continue to attempt to fish the wire through the tube that was in the ground. I had to walk away. I couldn't believe that we are going to face yet another huge unexpected expense. Then I began to pray a novena to St Anthony. Please help the electricians find a way through with the wire. Please!

Almost have the base in. More loads to come.
Then we roll it next.

I went out into the barn to clean stalls. And I continued to call on St Anthony. Please find a way. Please! One of the electricians walked into the barn and attempted to fish the wire from there, and all of a sudden they got it! They were able to fish the electric wire through. Oh thank you St Anthony, the patron of finding lost things, who found a way through. They think it was a 90 degree bend in the tube that provided the challenge. But we are not yet out of the woods. Now the team had to get the fishing line back through with the actual wire. After about 20 minutes they succeeded. We were home free! Whoop!

We enter the weekend with most of the base in and a new electric box put up. But more work ahead to get the arena powered up and the footing in so I can actually ride. Next week I'm on vacation. I was supposed to be hauling Diva and Bourbon to Tennessee to compete in The Nationals, but I'll be home to put in footing instead. A very good trade off. I am hopeful that I may ride in that new arena before next week ends. Fingers crossed. The light at the end of the tunnel is in sight.